A rotary lawnmower cuts grass by rotating a cutting blade along the grass, the cutting blade being housed in a housing which is open at the bottom. Such lawnmowers include those designed to be used in a bagging mode and lawnmowers designed to be used in a mulching mode.
A lawnmower used in bagging mode stores the grass cut by the cutting blade (i.e., the cut grass) in a bag or another cut grass storage container, and since all of the cut grass can be removed, the results of cutting grass with this lawnmower are superior, and such lawnmowers are widely used in golf courses and the like.
A lawnmower used in mulching mode cuts the cut grass even finer within the housing and discharges the grass underneath the housing, and the cut grass is returned to the lawn, whereby there is no need for “cut grass disposal” work, and the lawnmower is therefore widely used in parks and the like.
However, these two lawnmowers are used according to their application, which is inconvenient. In view of this, techniques are recently being developed whereby a bagging mode and a mulching mode can be used with one lawnmower. Example lawnmower of this type are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,449 and Japanese Patent No. 3771507.
The housing of the lawnmower disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,449 is a bagging mode housing in which a grass discharge chute extends rearward and upward from a top wall. By attaching and removing a chute plug to and from the grass discharge chute, the bagging mode housing can be switched between bagging mode and mulching mode. Furthermore, the housing has a plurality of kickers in the internal periphery. These kickers are members for guiding the cut grass to the bottom of the housing in mulching mode. Because the kickers are included, the cut grass can be efficiently discharged to the bottom of the housing when the lawnmower is used in mulching mode.
When the lawnmower is used in bagging mode, the cut grass is directed towards the grass discharge chute while moving in a revolving manner through the housing. However, the plurality of kickers positioned on the internal periphery of the housing affects the revolving movement of the cut grass through the housing. As a result, storage performance in housing mode is affected when the cut grass is taken from the housing to be stored in the bag via the grass discharge chute.
The lawnmower disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3771507 can be manually switched between a bagging mode for fully opening a shutter and storing cut grass in a cut grass storage container, a mulching mode for fully closing the shutter and discharging the cut grass out below the housing, and an intermediate mode between the housing mode and the mulching mode, wherein the shutter is set to the desired open position. The housing is not provided with any kickers. Therefore, when the lawnmower is used in mulching mode, there is room for further improvement in terms of more efficiently discharging cut grass out below the housing.